


"...and I thought you didn't believe in soulmates."

by DieroteRosine



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Established Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Fateful Encounter, Fluff, Kurooday, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Museums, Pre-Relationship, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, happy birthday kuroo, train
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-16
Updated: 2020-11-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 07:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27589646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DieroteRosine/pseuds/DieroteRosine
Summary: When the tram began to move again, Kuroo stretched his tense limbs.Only now did he notice the slight tug on his left wrist.Moments earlier he had dismissed it as a stressful reaction to the heat and the crowd, but now that he was standing alone on the platform, he clearly noticed the slight burning. In confusion, Kuroo rolled up his shirt sleeve, only to pause almost immediately - and then to throw a surprised look at the tram in the distance.Perplexed, he stared at the red moon tattoo burned into his skin.And for the first time in his life, Kuroo regretted not paying attention to his surroundings on the train.
Relationships: Akaashi Keiji/Bokuto Koutarou, Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei
Comments: 20
Kudos: 253





	"...and I thought you didn't believe in soulmates."

**Author's Note:**

  * For [phixuscarus](https://archiveofourown.org/users/phixuscarus/gifts).



> Welcome y'all to my little present for Kuroo's birthday :) 
> 
> This is a collaboration with the amazing [Phix](https://twitter.com/phixuscarus)!  
> Check out her [work](https://twitter.com/phixuscarus/status/1328363026378944513) for the story! <3

Tokyo burned from the summer heat. Like ants, people fled from the sun's rays and scurried from shadow to shadow, always trying to avoid the boiling asphalt. The sun had been burning relentlessly on people's heads for weeks.

Kuroo sighed deeply, chin resting on his fist, and continued to stare out of the tram window. Sweat ran down his back and he repeatedly wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his shirt. His fellow passengers were not feeling any better and with a frown Kuroo noticed the glassy look of the people around him, everyone tried not to have any physical contact with the others. The display above their heads announced in bright LED signs that there were three more stops for Kuroo before he could escape that boiling sardine can.

Of course, just in the worst summer of years, his car had the audacity to die which lead to Kuroo's current situation - him getting grilled on the tram day after day. Kenma, generous as he was, had offered Kuroo to use his car since he was the CEO of his own company and never left the house during summer anyway. But since Kuroo knew that in a few days a certain orange-haired volleyball player-boyfriend would show up at Kenma's and drag him out of the house, he had declined the offer.

Much to his current displeasure.

The longer the sun burned relentlessly on the sauna also known as tram, the more Kuroo regretted his decision. He hadn't even gotten to work and could already wring out his shirt.

Two more stops.

Kuroo sighed again, a quick look at his phone made him aware that he had to hurry now - which meant a sprint in this damn heat. With a low growl, the man closed his eyes. Three more weeks and then he would fly to Sendai with Bokuto, Akaashi and Kenma and go on vacation. Like in the good old days, hiking, camping and fishing. Escape the everyday life of the big city, even if Kenma had been asking for a few weeks whether he could just stay at home, because _"the sun wouldn't be good for him."_

Excuses, the other three knew that too, of course, but Bokuto had promised Kenma to carry him up all the mountains, if he would have to. With a tired grin, Kuroo imagined Bokuto dragging Kenma up the mountains on his back while Kenma was hanging on him like a wet sack, playing his video games. The thought elicited an amused snort from Kuroo and he looked up.

One more station, then he would be able to escape this murderous heat, at least for a moment. With a stretch, the man straightened up, pushed himself forward to the doors, the pure smell of the hundreds of people huddled together made him hold his breath. The eyes half closed, trying to press no more than necessary against the other passengers, Kuroo waited for the doors to open and less than two seconds later he stumbled into the fresh air with an audible gasp. When the tram began to move again, Kuroo lowered his briefcase and stretched his tense limbs.

Only now did he notice the _slight_ tug on his left wrist.

Moments earlier he had dismissed it as a stressful reaction to the heat and the crowd, but now that he was standing alone on the platform, he clearly noticed the slight burning. In confusion, Kuroo put the briefcase on the floor and rolled up his shirt sleeve, only to pause almost immediately - and then to throw a surprised look at the tram in the distance.

Perplexed, he stared at the red moon tattoo burned into his skin.

And for the first time in his life, Kuroo regretted not paying attention to his surroundings on the train.

Kenma rolled across the room in his chair, headphones slung around his neck and gave Kuroo a wry look. The black-haired man had been crouching on his floor for half an hour already and was still staring, almost in awe, at the little moon on his wrist. After work, Kuroo drove straight to his best friend to tell him the big news. With a sigh, Kenma tucked a few loose strands behind his ear.

"So again, just to take notes. You took the train to work this morning and bumped into several people, one of whom must have given you this -”, he nodded at the tattoo, " _thing._ ”

Kuroo smiled crookedly. “Seems so, because I didn't have it before I got in. And _that_ only allows one solution."

The blond man smirked. "Oh yes, that you bumped into your soulmate on the tram and will probably never see them again, let's be realistic."

Kuroo snorted outraged. "Kenma, how high was the chance that I would meet my soulmate in the first place? Now I'll definitely meet them again." On the doubtful look of his friend he added: “Can't everyone be so blessed and meet their soulmate at a volleyball game. Or just like Bokuto at school."

"Yeah, it's _really hard_ for you.", Kenma sighed theatrically and gave Kuroo an amused smile. “But now everything will be fine, because you are guaranteed to run into your soulmate again. Maybe for the next few years you should just sit in the train from morning to evening and bump into everyone who gets on." At the sudden stir from Kuroo, Kenma backpedalled. "I wasn’t serious! Kuroo, if you seriously intend to do this, then we've been best friends for the longest time!"

"Calm down, Ken.", Kuroo chuckled and poked Kenma in the side, which the other commented with a grumble. “I won't be embarrassing myself for no reason, but the idea itself isn't bad at all. Maybe I'll meet the mysterious stranger on the train again tomorrow.”

Kenma raised an eyebrow but stayed silent, for which Kuroo was thoroughly grateful. His best friend, like Akaashi, had the ability to shoot down even the smallest bit of hope with his unscrupulous rationality. So Kuroo was left with a small spark of hope to actually find his soulmate when he left Kenma's apartment an hour later and headed for the tram.

Again and again his gaze flickered to the now quite faded tattoo on his hand and he smiled slightly. It had taken him 24 years to find out about his soulmate's existence and all he got was a tiny red moon. Whoever was allowed to walk around with _his_ tattoo would probably own an entire tattoo sleeve - at least for the next two hours, until his tattoo was completely gone.

A quirk that made Soulmate tattoos unique. If you touched your soulmate, a colorful tattoo burned itself under the skin anywhere on the body, _the bigger the more the person believed in the concept of soulmates_. If you didn't touch them again within 12 hours, the tattoo would disappear as quickly as it came. A blurry reminder that you had run into your matching puzzle piece.

This exact puzzle piece Kuroo wanted to find after learning that they were in Tokyo with him. His thumb caressed the little moon, lost in thought and a smile crossed his face.

"Who are you and how much do you hate me for the fact that your entire body is probably currently adorned with one single large tattoo?"

With a grin, Kuroo wandered towards the train-stop and for a brief moment his heart leaped when he got on the tram and the unrealistic thought returned to meet his soulmate again. After all, he had lived in Tokyo for 24 years and used the train without even seeing a glimpse of his missing half. With a shake of his head he let himself fall on one of the seats and closed his eyes, the tingling on his skin a faint promise that soon there would only be a slight reddening of the moon left.

As if electrified, Kuroo sat the next morning in the exact same place as the day before and gazed curiously at the doors whenever the train came to an halt, in the hope of getting an approximate clue who to look for. Maybe he would immediately know who his soulmate was when he would see this person.

Back then, Bokuto had reported that he had only seen Akaashi in the door of the gym and knew immediately that this boy was _his_. Whereby Kenma, on the contrary, had to be run over by Hinata to know that the little orange-haired boy belonged to his side.

Once again the doors next to Kuroo opened, having the man on the edge of his seat in anticipation. His knee bobbed impatiently up and down, the fingers tapping on his briefcase in an inaudible rhythm and he caught himself chewing his lower lip.

The Creak of the door, a quick look up, _back down, keep chewing_.

Two more stations and so far none of the people had really caught his eye. After all there was still the possibility that his soul mate wasn't even on the train that day. Kuroo ignored the little voice telling him that his soulmate's visit yesterday could’ve been just a coincidence and that they would never take this train again.

Another stop.

Again no one who looked even remotely like Kuroo's supposed soulmate, eliciting a suppressed sigh of the man. The LED display changed again and clearly announced Kuroo's halt as the next stop. Slightly disappointed, the black-haired man stumbled onto the sidewalk at his station, ignoring the people pushing past him into the train.

Until he suddenly felt the _tingling_ sensation on his arm, just like the day before.

Kuroo spun around. At exactly this moment the doors closed behind him, but he still caught a glimpse of a young man with blond hair and glasses, who was also staring confused - first at his arms and then at him.

Kuroo stopped dead in his tracks, unable to move even an inch as golden eyes looked him up and down and a fine smile spread across the man's lips. And to make things even worse, this smile was combined with a challenging raise of eyebrows. An action that made Kuroo's heart stumble, his brain unable to process the fact that his soulmate was just simply the most beautiful person he had ever seen.

It wasn't until the tram and his soul mate had long since disappeared around the next corner, that Kuroo noticed that he was still standing with his mouth open on the railroad track, staring into the distance. Overwhelmed, he ran a hand through his hair and shook his head with a crooked grin.

"And _I_ thought you didn't believe in soulmates," he muttered to himself, his gaze lingering on the black crow that covered his entire forearm.

But as if Kuroo's discovery of his soulmate should be enough of his luck for now, this morning was the last time that Kuroo met the man for the time being. No matter how often he showed up at the tram stop earlier and waited - it was as if the young man with the blond hair and that devilishly seductive grin had disappeared from the surface.

Day after day Kuroo tried to catch a glimpse of the blonde hair in the train, but in vain. After two weeks with no trace and no more tattoos on his skin, Kuroo actually began to doubt that he had seen the man _at all_. It couldn't be that he saw this man twice in a row and then never again.

Grumbling, Kuroo stared out the window and began to chew on his lower lip again, politely ignoring the scolding look of Akaashi sitting in front of him. Bokuto groaned when the traffic light turned red right in front of them and he had to stop the car.

"'Kaashi, why exactly do we _all_ have to come with you again?" He quickly added. “Not that I don't like doing something with you, but why to the museum? Couldn't Tenma have done it himself?"

His boyfriend clicked his tongue and pushed his glasses further into his face. "I'm only supposed to find out one or two pieces of information for his manga and since you two never come into contact with culture, I thought you could educate yourself a bit."

Kuroo rolled his eyes and bared his teeth. “But why to the museum? If I want to know something about dinosaurs, I can just watch Jurassic Park." In response, he received a deep sigh from Akaashi and a high five from Bokuto as the latter parked them in front of the museum.

"Do we really have to go?", Kuroo looked at the building skeptically, he had never understood how one could voluntarily deal with only dead stuff.

Akaashi gave the two men a smile, which did not even remotely reach his eyes. “You can of course stay here, if you want to. I have absolutely _no_ problem with that. I'm sure there are a bunch of nice men in there who would _love_ to take care of me."

Bokuto had already left the car before Kuroo could even reply to that and so, shortly afterwards, they all climbed the steps to the museum together.

As if Akaashi's comment had triggered something in Bokuto, the muscular volleyball player had his arm possessively wrapped around Akaashi's waist, staring at each of the museum staff warningly. Although none of the guys would approach a man whose entire exposed skin on both arms and legs was covered with glowing tattoos.

Kuroo clicked his tongue, his thoughts wandered back to the blond man on the train for a moment and he shook his head. He just couldn't get those bright golden eyes and the blond curls out of his head and just the thought of the crooked smile made his heart beat unusually fast. How much he would have loved to have at least the man's name, some little clue where to look for him or how to find him.

But no, all he got was that the blond man appeared to be about his age, got on at his stop and had short circuited his brain with a single smile. Not necessarily the best description to look for someone and actually find them successfully.

They were now wandering through the exhibition with the dinosaur bones. Akaashi began to concentrate on taking some notes before photographing details of the bones and pictures.

Kuroo eyed one of the dinosaurs with raised eyebrows, the bones protruding several meters into the air and he wondered what exactly Tenma was going to do with this kind of information. Hadn't the man wanted to draw a sports manga? Why exactly did he need data from ... whatever kind of dinosaur that was?

"Akaashi, couldn't you just have used your phone for these pictures?" Kuroo asked without turning to his friends. He only winced when suddenly someone right next to him cleared his throat and asked in an unfamiliar voice:

"Don't you find it a bit presumptuous to ask something like that in a museum, _Sir_?"

Kuroo turned around, ready to apologize to the museum employee for his words, when he stopped dead in his tracks. 

It felt like a deja vu, the golden eyes that looked at him in amusement and the crooked smile on the other's lips.

"Fuck.", Kuroo muttered and his counterpart raised an eyebrow.

"Well, I've had much friendlier greetings, that’s for sure."

Kuroo immediately shook his head, his thoughts racing as he stammered: “Oh yes, I'm sorry, I mean -”, he continued to stare at the young man, overwhelmed, “ _fuck_ , you're even more beautiful up close."

Now the man clicked his tongue, an omnipresent smirk on his lips. “Again, I'm not sure this is the best way to address your soulmate. But what do I know- "; he eyed Kuroo provocatively, "after all, I only spend my day with bones and not with living people."

Kuroo could feel the heat rising in his ears, although it was absolutely impossible that the man could have heard his comment to Akaashi earlier. Golden eyes fixed him with interest and Kuroo's mouth went dry. He had never seen such a beautiful person in his whole life and if the other would continue to look at him like _that_ , Kuroo couldn't guarantee that he would not immediately get on his knees for a love confession.

"But bones - the bones-" he broke off and took a deep breath, it took him a moment to get his pounding heart under control. “I suppose there are lore about soulmates in this museum too, right? So you know just as much as I do."

Now the blond man laughed out loud and Kuroo could swear to hear the wedding bells ringing at that moment. "Yes, but believe me, I'm sure that this information isn't hidden in the dinosaur bones."

" _Oh_.", Was all Kuroo managed to say and he laughed overwhelmed. The other man was still smiling and then nodded at the bones in front of them.

“Diplodocus, late Jurassic period. And if you look very closely now, it's carved into one of the bones that the best thing you should do is to invite your soulmate on a date if you want to know more about him."

Kuroo couldn't help but laugh. "Well, if the Diplodocus had already done it that way, I should probably stick to this etiquette."

"Perhaps. After all, you haven't even managed to find me in the first place and I had to take it into my own hands."

Kuroo paused. "Wait, what do you mean?"

The blonde nodded in the direction of his friends, who had been staring at the same bone very _inconspicuously_ for minutes now. Suddenly it all made sense.

"Akaashi."

The young man smiled slightly and raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Who could have guessed that my best friend and your best friend are a couple?"

" _That's_ why he insisted that Bo and I come with him today." Kuroo groaned and slapped both hands over his face. The amused grin of his counterpart was clearly audible.

"Since you couldn't figure out where I work on your own, I had to help out a bit."

At Kuroo's questioning look, the blond man nodded to his bag, which clearly read that he worked in the natural history museum. "I carried the bag when we last met, but you were busy staring at my face."

The statement made Kuroo puff and scratch the back of his head. “What can I do if my soulmate is so _incredibly_ attractive? That was definitely not my fault."

The other's cheeks turned slightly red as he snorted softly. "You seem to have found your smoothness again, but I'm still waiting for my invitation to our date."

Kuroo grinned and cleared his throat before giving a slight bow, taking the other's hand. “My name is Kuroo Tetsurou. Would you do me the honor and tell me your name first so I can take you out on a date afterwards? I have no intention of just simply bumping into you again on the tram." Now he winked at the other. "Even if I have nothing against other _“collisions”_.”

The blonde clicked his tongue and returned the handshake. "My name is Tsukishima Kei and before you even have the chance to “collide” with me, I want an apology for _this_."

And before Kuroo had the chance to question this statement, the young man had already taken off his uniform jacket. The sight beneath elicited an almost proud laugh from Kuroo, a warm feeling filling his chest.

Acid green and black cat tattoos, one larger than the other, entwined wildly over the man's arms.

"How can you be so _pushy_.", smiled Tsukishima and only now did Kuroo see fiery red crows, moons and fireflies light up on his own arms.

"Yes, how dare I."

He smiled at Tsukishima and squeezed his hand again.

"So may I take you out to dinner, as the Diplodocus demands of us?"

Tsukishima gave him a crooked smile and nodded.

"But first we should tell Akaashi and Bokuto that you're not coming home with them today." With a smirk, the blonde added. "And they shouldn't ask about you tomorrow morning either."

When Kuroo followed Tsukishima to his apartment that evening and he ran his fingers over the blonde's naked torso in the light of the moon, he could literally feel every single tattoo burn under his touch.

Kenma actually stayed in Tokyo for the following week on vacation - coincidentally, his boyfriend had spontaneously been given a day off and of course Kenma would rather spend the time with his partner than with his three friends. Instead, a certain blond man took the place of Kenma and each of the four received strange looks from passing hikers. 

Understandable - after all, all their upper bodies shone in tattoos in all the colors of the rainbow.


End file.
